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A propósito de Alvão

A PROPÓSITO DE ALVÃO [IN REGARD TO ALVÃO]
Carme Nogueira in collaboration with Kubikgallery, Porto. December 2016-February 2017
At the closest physical context of Rua da Restauração (Kubikgallery) is the Crystal Palace and its gardens. It’s a central place at the city of Porto that had an historical relevance because, among other things, there took place the “Colonial Exhibition” in 1934. This exhibition happened in a very speci c historical moment in which other European countries exhibited their colonial power, being Porto’s exhibition the rst one f the Iberian Peninsula.
In these gardens at the Crystal Palace, it was outlined a map of the colonies through a series of re- plicas of pavilions from companies mixed up with others from settlements that had relations with the colonies. The House Alvão was in charge of its photo coverage.
By coincidence, a year before in 1933, Domingos Alvão was also in charge of making a “survey of the Port Wine territories”, an extensive report of the territories where wine was produced, processed and stored. In a way, Domingos Alvão made a series portraits of the epoch and gender paintings that re ected the reality they lived.
Both worlds have their contact point at the Ferreirinha Pavilion, which I used as a reference for the structure of the site-speci c piece.
The piece that was installed at the gardens of the Crystal Palace it’s a structure that remind us the Ferreirinha Pavilion. It imitates its perimeter and its entrance door, but its basic structure will be converted into a stand. The idea is that the structure (that remits to what’s below, what sustains it, what pre-exist) converts itself in a meeting point to rethink the meaning of this public space nowa- days. It’s not just a place to go back to what has happened, to history (but also), it is a platform on which you see the place here and now, since the pre-existing, since the structure.
This structure also references the wine production work, since it resembles a winepress.
From the 13rd December to 22nd december a series of conversations took place in the piece. The conversations revolve around three topics: the history and stories of wine work (with Gaspar Mart- ins Pereira and Carla Sequeira); the role of public art in the representation of Porto and its relation with the context (Fernando José Pereira, Gabriela Vaz-Pinheiro e Eduardo Brito) and the relations- hips with old colonies (Manuel Penteado and Dr. Carlos Krug Noronha)